bioMASON : The Future of Building

What if we took one of the largest sources of global carbon emissions and made it completely environmentally friendly? Now, what if we took an industry that is one of the largest fossil fuel consumers and revised the process to consume absolutely none? Now, then, what if we did both of these things in one fluent leap towards the future; we revolutionize the absolute lowest common denominator of industrial building. bioMASON Inc, founded by Ginger Krieg Dosier, has found a way to employ a unique method of biotechnological manufacturing to redefine the production of cement-based masonry building materials. We can now grow bricks.

How much do you know about bricks? Did you know that bricks are used in over 80 percent of global construction? How about the fact that we manufacture approximately 1.23 trillion bricks a year, causing an estimated 800 million tons of carbon emissions? In terms of a carbon footprint, we may have just found Bigfoot. Perhaps these numbers may peak your interest in this new method of biotechnology, as you and I both know that if this were truly the case in addition to the rapid depletion of fossil fuels being a direct stem from the current brick-making process, growing bricks could be an amazing advancement for us.

Shipping Changes

Best of all, the process really isn’t even all that complicated. In fact, the process is so simple that the creators imagine a future where we no longer ship bricks to a job site, but rather just make them there. In order to make the bricks you need three things: a mold, a bacteria-based solution, and sand. Now in brainstorming this process, Ginger Dosier referred to sand as it is in extreme global abundance. As for the bacteria solution, she had to dig into the subject of biomimicry: “the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes.” Through her studies of biomimicry she realized that nature has a lot to teach, and found herself testing with bacteria from coral reefs. Like the spider, who can weave silk stronger than man-made steel by weight, coral reefs use a building bacteria that has incredible potential in biotechnology.

The liquid solution is further broken down as such: the bacteria, a calcium source, a nitrogen source, food for the bacteria, and of course water. In the mold, the sand is given feedings of the solution over a period of 5 days and by the end, the solution is cut off, the bacteria dies, and viola : the biotechnological building block. No heating, rapid carbon emission, and the process even takes about the same time as our current process. Furthermore, there is much greater potential still for the process of using additives in manufacturing of building materials, such as the ability to some day perhaps include a pollution absorbing mineral in the very same brick; not only would this stop harming our environment, it could possibly even begin fixing it. For more information you can visit www.biomason.com, trust me, this is something you will want to keep up with.